Bag filling machine



April 27, 1937. H. F. BRIG GS BAG FILLING MACHINE Filed Dec. 17, 1934 ATTORNEY UNITED STAT Patented Apr. 27, 1937 BAG FILLING MACHINE Howland F. Briggs, Buffalo, N. Y., assignor to Bagpak, Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application December 17, 1934, Serial No. 757,761

..3 Claims. (01. 226-58) This, invention constitutes an improved form of spout to be used on a bag filling machine, such as set forth and disclosed in the copending application of Robert N. Cundall and Lincoln A. Cundall, Serial No. 688,816, filed September 9, 1933. The invention may, of course, be used I with other types of machines, but such machines must beof the type wherein open mouth bags, as distinguished from valve bags, are filled with material.

It has been found that there is almost no commodity which does not contain more dust than can'be allowed to escape freely into the atmosphere. By dust is meant small particles, either of the material being packaged or foreign matter,

so fine as to be blown into the atmosphere by a light blast of air. When packaging such materials as sugar, cocoa, flour, crushed rock products, soda-ash and other powdered chemicals, and

other pulverulent materials, a large percentage of the material can be blown into the atmosphere, thereby destroying any accuracy of weight of a pre-weighed charge, fouling the atmosphere and coating nearby objects with dust, and in some instances injuring bearings and other moving, contacting surfaces, or endangering the health of workmen. The object of this invention is to eliminate any escape of dust from the bag being filled without preventing the escape of air trapped with the charge and forced into the bag.

The invention comprises alterations in the structure of a single filling spout, and as such may be applied to each of a plurality of filling spouts carried on a rotary turret, such as disclosed in the aforementioned copending application.

Advantages of the invention are that it does not obstruct the filling spout to such an extent as to lessen the speed of the machine, while it is so constructed and arranged as to allow the immediate escape of trapped air and to insure the simultaneous return of whatever dust is forced from the bag so that a pre-weighed charge will be maintained at the fixed weight.

The invention may more readily be understood by reference to the accompanying drawing wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.

Referring to the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a plan view, partially diagrammatic, of a turret having a plurality of filling spouts mounted thereon;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view partly in section taken along line 2-2 of Fig. 1 and illustrating the preferred form of the invention; and

Fig. 3 is a similar view showing a modified con-: struction. V

The turret of Fig. 1 comprises a plurality of funnel-like hoppers II] from the bottom of which extend flattened, ovular spouts I l, abouteach of which the open mouth of a bag l2 may be placed. and held to receive a charge of material dumped into the hopper ID. The flattened, ovular form of spout is preferred, since the general shape 01. the package resulting from filling the ordinary bag is more or less flattened and ovular in cross.

section. When a bag is placed over such a spout, there will normally be a small, substantially triangular opening such as l3 at each side of thespout. It is through such an opening that air and dust was formerly allowed to escape.

The invention prevents the escape of dust into the room by providing a vent within the spout itself, preferably two such vents being provided in order to .maintain a uniform flow of material and uniform escape of air from eachsi'de of the bag. The vents are formed by providing false walls I4 at each side of the spout H forming, in effect, a smaller, flattened ovular spout without decreasing a great deal from the cross sectional area of the passageway through which the material passes. In the. preferred form of the invention, the false walls l4 extend the entire length of the spout II and, from the upper end of the spout, are extendedto the top of hoppers l0 along adjacent corners thereof. An inverted channel member or baffle l5 covers the: opening of the vent thus formed and. prevents? dust from being ejected above the top of thev hopper. The side walls of hoppers I0 extend to the roof of the cap, so that whatever dustis carried to the top of the vent will be returned into the hopper I0 within which the charge was originally'dumped. The spout II is preferably formed with the lower edges of its walls cut away, leaving a projected tip 20 at each side, and a guide bar 2| and curved straps 22 are positioned over the end of the spout to guide the spout into a bag. The bag is inserted over the spout to a certain depth and held in place by clamps or grippers 23, one at each side of the bag. The openings [3 are blocked in the device by a ring 24 of sponge rubber or other soft, relatively porous material carried by the spout II, which allowsthe escape of a portion of the air while holding back dust, thereby reducing the pressure of the air escaping through the vents. Ring 24 may be relatively thin at the front and back of the spout where the bag is drawn close thereto and thickened at each end of the spout where the openings [3 occur.

In Fig. 2, the normal air currents, produced by dumping a charge through a spout, are illustrated. The charge of material is dumped through the hopper l and spout ll into the bag; the material acting as a piston and forcing a substantial volume of trapped air into the bag. This air would normally tend to escape through the openings I3, but is almost entirely blocked by the member 24 which plugs the openings I3. The air will tend to rise along the side edges of the bag and since there is an opening at each side of the spout, the charge will not be disrupted by air rushing from one side to the other side of the bag. Due to the cutaway lip on the spout, air which rises above the bar 2| can, nevertheless,

, escape between the bag wall and the points 20 of the spout. The air will rise through the vents until turned downwardly by the cap [5. Very little of the dust carried by the out-rushing air will tend to rise entirely to the top of the vent, particularly since the vent is formed with a plurality of bends and is constricted toward the upper end, andafter the force of the outrushing air has been spent, the main portion of the dust will settle back through the vent and into the bag. Whatever dust is discharged through the spout will be turned downwardly by the cap I and returned through the hopper and spout into the bag.

In some machines, such as in the aforementioned copending application, the bag is jogged while, and after, being filled. Ordinarily such jogging releases more trapped air and at each jolt of the jogging mechanism a cloud of dust would be pufied into the air. even this.

Fig. 3 illustrates a modified form of spout wherein the false walls l4 extend but partially thereinto. A baflle or shelf 25, set at an angle to the walls of the spout, is positioned over the top of the false walls M. Any dust tending to escape from the charge will strike this shelf and be shunted back into the bag. A further modification is likewise illustrated, in that the ring 24 is replaced by a separate block or plug 26 at each side of the spout. This shortened vent and separate plug has been found to be suflicient for certain freely-flowing materials, such as largegrained sugar, coarse rock products, or wheat and other grains. With such materials the primary object of preventing the escape of dust is achieved, but it is not so essential that every bit of the dust, which is usually innocuous foreign matter such as chafi, be returned into the bag.

The device eliminates This modified form will return an overwhelming majority of the dust, but is not as eflicient as the form shown in Fig. 2, and is only desirable where cheapness of construction is the paramount consideration.

Other alterations and modifications of the invention may suggest themselves to the person skilled in the art, and it is not the intention that the invention be limited to the mechanical details herein disclosed, except in so far as may be determined by the scope of the following claims which are to be broadly construed.

I claim:

1. A filling spout for a bag filling machine suitable for filling open mouth bags comprising, an outer wall, an inner wall within said outer wall forming a vent at each side of the spout to allow the escape of trapped air from the bag, and means associated therewith to return any escaping dust back into the bag, said outer wall being formed in a flattened, ovular shape and said inner wall forming a smaller, flattened oval, the front and back walls of said spout being cut away so as to provide projecting tips at the sides of the spout.

2. A filling spout for a bag filling machine suitable for filling open mouth bags comprising, an outer wall, an inner wall within said outer wall forming a vent at each side of the spout to allow the escape of trapped air from the bag, means associated therewith to return any escaping dust back into the bag, said outer wall being formed in a flattened, ovular shape and said inner wall forming a smaller, flattened oval, the front and back walls of said spout being cut away so as to provide projecting tips at the sides of the spout,

and a member positioned upon said outer wall and against which'the upper edge of the bag is positioned.

3. A filling spout for a bag filling machine suitable for filling open mouth bags comprising, an outer wall, an inner wall within said outer wall forming a vent at each side of the spout to allow'the escape of trapped air from the bag, means associated therewith to return any escaping dust back into the bag, said outer wall being formed in a flattened, ovular shape and said inner wall forming a smaller, flattened oval, the front and back walls of said spout being cut away so as to provide projecting tips at the sides or the spout, and means upon said outer wall against which the upper edge of a bag being filled may be positioned in order to prevent the escape of dust between the outer surface of the spout and the edge of a bag.

HOWLAND F. BRIGGS. 

